Morning journal and courier., 1887-03-07
THE VILLAGE TONGUE.
Some Account of the Language in U
 at the SauaIIitii Kills.

Some Account of the Language in Use at the Sauallitji Kills.
 A playful philologist, writing to the New York Times from the little village of Squal- litji Kills, mentions some of the most in teresting and important words, phrases and grammatical constructions in common use l among the inhabitants. Take for instance the verb Ito see." Present, I see; imper- feet, I seen Gas ''I seen him yisterday''); per feet, have saw; pluperfect, had saw; first future absent, there being no ''shall' to ex- press simple futurity; second future, I shell see; third future, be you ever goin' to see! l (but this only in interrogatives); fourth fu-
 ture, goll blsme you, can't you see. fifth fu- ture, you thunderin' young mutton header,
 you'd better see pretty blame quick; perfect future, well, if he ain't the durndest fool jackass I never didn't see nowheres; impera- tive, get yer eye onto that second impera- tive, catch onto that; third imperative, blame your eyes, why don't you catch onto that; perfect participle, seed or saw, as by then you will have seed or have saw him. Again take the verb Ito go." Present, go; imperfect, I legged perfect, I have went; pluperfect, had went or had legged; first | future, I'll go; second future, I'll have went; imperative, git; potential, probably I'll go; potential imperfect, I mout go; potential perfect, praps l went; potential pluperfect, I l ought to have went preperfect participle. having went, but this is seldom used except in solemn discourse. In presenting these va rious forms I have found it necessary to give them an appearance more nearly English than that to which they are really entitled;
 had I spelled the words phonetically it would have beed nearly, if not quite, impossible for ordinary readers to discover their rela- tionship to our mother tongue.
 Some of the Squallitjan idioms are suffi- ciently curious. A native for example never says Che is my uncle, my cousin or my grandfather" but always 'I have to call him uncle cousin or grandfather" married wo- man is never Mrs. Jones for instance, but al | ways Miss Jones; all men, even such digni- | taries as Mrs. Charles Adams Danferth are universally called by an abbreviation of their | Christian names, Charley Danforth, Pete Hen | Kittle and so on, exception being made only
 in cases of clergymen, who seldom stay in l Squallitji Kills long enough for the people to become familiar with them. It may be re-
 membered that the propensity to call men | out of their names is set down by MT. Philip | Gilbert Hamerton as a pretty sure sign of 8 | civilization so low s to verge closely upon 1 brutality; but if 'fPhil Gil," as he would
 soon be dubbed should he come here, should | remain with us long enough to get at the
 real essence of the thing, he would see that 1 it arises partly out of pure good nature, | partly from a strong feeling of universal
 brotherhood, and partly from intellectual la | ziness, which renders it irksome for the in- l habitants to try to remember the whole of g | Christian name which is more than one syl-
 lable long. And there is at least partial l explanation of, if not an excuse for, the | Squallitjan reluctance to remember long giv.
 en names, since the surnames that abound ir
 this religion are jaw-breakers of the frs1
 order. With such last names to recall as
 Van Sehlippenschlopp, Van Klumpenbach
 Van Schaach, Huyaradtenbrimmer, Holsap
 pie and Stupplebeen, and such careful dis | oriminations to make between the Jimsons
 Jimpsons, Johnsons, Jacksons, Van Aliens
 and Van Alens, the people could never sue
 ceed in sinking deep into their minds the l long Christian names which but too frequent | ly accompany them. I am telling no lie | when I solemnly asseverate that young boy | whose parents live down in one of our rather
 numerous alleys, where they keep little
 shoe shop at which the children spend theil
 pennies for peanuts, return balls and can
 dies, and their parents buy such simple med
 icaments as castor oil and squills-that this
 innocent youngster sports the name of Dom
 Pedro Gustavus Kosciusko Hayes Jimpson, l the last word being his surname. He is gen. | orally called Dompy Gus for short